Bath might turn out to be the first city in England to introduce tourist tax

Published on : Friday, January 12, 2018

Bath, a town in southwest England has the chance to become the first to introduce a tourist tax in UK, like Paris and Rome.

Almost six million visitors congregate to the UNESCO World Heritage city every year to explore the famous Roman baths along with ancient abbey.

However plans have been proposed to charge hotel guests an extra £1 per night, deciding to stay in the city that would churn out £2.4million to be put back into the community.

The Bath and North East Somerset Council has proposed the levy that will place it on the Local Government Association and Prime Minister Theresa May.

If the said proposal gets through, the Georgian spa city would turn out to be the first in the UK to launch the model, which has become common throughout Europe though.

Nevertheless, this was the second time the plan got forwarded after Bath city leaders were informed by Westminster that they would not be permitted to charge the fee in 2017. Few hotel owners explained that even a small extra charge would impact their businesses and gathering the cash would be tricky and costly.

But, Birmingham may be given the permission to charge their own tourist tax to assist pay for the Commonwealth Games, when it comes to the city in 2022.

The council’s Operational Plan states: ‘Visitors are important to our economy, but they also impact upon council resources and services with around 5.8 million visitors every year.”